The University of Bath carryied out a major research project on our behalf looking at how HR practice impacts on business performance.Results have permeated through many of our other research projects, such as high performance working and human capital. We published a series of in-depth research reports based on the study and we produced two practical tools to help practitioners in the practical application of the research findings .
The research reports
- The latest report from the study is Managing across Boundaries: Human Resource Management beyond the Firm, for which the Bath team worked with a team at Cornell University. Increasingly, organisational boundaries are becoming blurred as not all of the people contributing to the performance of an organisation are employed within it. The report looks at how HRM practices and processes can successfully manage effort outside the boundaries of the firm and at what this means for building the different forms of capital. A detailed case study examines the nature of human and social capital in McKinsey & Co.
- Managing People and Knowledge in Professional Service Firms, published in November 2006, develops the ideas brought out in previous reports (listed below) to help you to understand how human capital is translated into organisational value.
- During 2003-04 we published three 'Executive Briefing' reports to develop further the findings of the major report from the study - Understanding the People and Performance Link: Unlocking the Black Box - which was published earlier in 2003
- The three Executive Briefings were:
Vision and Values, published October 2004.
- View details in the CIPD Bookstore
- View the summary
Managing the Careers of Professional Knowledge Workers, published June 2004.
Bringing Policies to Life: The Role of Front Line Managers, published December 2003.
Sustaining Success in Difficult Times
Practical tools
A series of tools was developed to assist in practical application of the research findings. HR strategy: creating the framework for successful people management and People and performance: designing the processes for maximum performance and delivery were produced in 2005.
Earlier publications on people and performance
- Voices from the Boardroom, a research report published in 2002 investigated chief executives’ attitudes to people management practices. The published report is now out of print, but CIPD members can borrow it from our library.
- Contact the CIPD Library
- CIPD contributed to work being carried out by a team of academics including David Guest of Kings College, University of London. They conducted a multi-sector survey of UK organisations, with results compared with three years' performance data. The initial findings were published in August 2000 as Effective People Management. These preliminary findings confirmed that organisations that adopt more people-centric practices have more satisfied and committed employees. This in turn has a positive link to productivity and financial performance. Though the publication is no longer in print, but CIPD members can borrow it from our library.
- Contact the CIPD Library
- In 1997 we published The Impact of People Management on Business Performance by Patterson and West of the Institute of Work Psychology at the University of Sheffield. This was complemented by a literature review produced in 1999 by Ray Richardson of the LSE and Marc Thompson of Templeton College Oxford. These publications are no longer in print, but reference copies are available for CIPD members in our library.
- Contact CIPD Library
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